Our 7-Year-Old Nehemiah

Seven years! It's been seven years since we first held Nehemiah in our arms. He came fast and furious and he has been a spitfire ever since. 

When you first meet Nehemiah, he seems like a quiet and shy little boy. But deep down he is silly and full of life. He's always sizing up the situation, paying attention to what is going on and what others are doing. Do not let his quietness fool you. He's watching and learning!

Nehemiah loves to learn. He has excelled at learning to read, basic math, grammar and phonics. He can recite most of what he learns the first time he hears it. He takes initiative, and eagerly starts formal book work learning without prompting and is very proud of his accomplishments.

One of his favorite things to learn is chess and is studying and playing with his brothers to grow in is understanding of the game. He's not quite to strategizing yet, but he can keep up with the big boys. Nehemiah enjoys playing games of all kinds and you can frequently find him playing one with someone during free time. He also enjoys puzzles and solving problems. 

Nehemiah also loves to be outside in God's creation. For him, the weather doesn't matter. He can be dripping in sweat or wrapped in coats, but still be enjoying the great outdoors. He loves to explore, dig and climb. He will watch bugs at work and play with them  in the dirt. His energy is almost limitless, but he's not restless. It's an amazing and brilliant combination that God has given to him as he learns and grows. 

Music is also enjoyed by Nehemiah. He loves to learn hymns and is interested in instruments. He tries drumming occasionally with James and would like to try keyboards as soon as he's able. 

Most of all, Nehemiah likes to be with people. You will see him alone, especially if no one else wants to go outside, but he would rather be with others. He understands at a young age the value of doing life with people, and right now that's his family. He is sensitive and so he is learning to deal with people well. 

We are so blessed by Nehemiah's life and we thank our God, YHWH, that He saw fit to give Nehemiah to our family!

Father, we thank You so much for Nehemiah! He is such a blessing, made in your image! Thank You for his sweet spirit that comes out and thank you for his love of learning. Thank You for how You are working in him and we pray that he will know your comfort and help and that he might be Your comfort and help to others. We ask You in the mighty name of Jesus to save Nehemiah and turn his heart to You! Make him a man after Your own heart and teach him Your ways, that he may know You, love you, honor You with all that he is. We pray this is the name of Your Son, Jesus! Amen

Created to Thrive: An Artist's Guide to Living in Divine Abundance by Matt Tommey

I was introduced to Matt Tommey through my business coach, Katie Hornor, and from the first time I heard him speak I knew God was using him. He has a beautiful way of explaining how art and creativity is a part of God's Kingdom and design that was refreshing and life-giving to an author and content creator.

I definitely grew up in the era of the arts are important, but that's not a career/job/etc, as well as the era of art is not really a part of church. Matt busts these myths wide open in his book, especially in regards to Christians and how they view art and careers as artists. He lays out what it means to be a Christian artist and how to evaluate where you are as an artist. (Yes, he includes writers/authors/content creators as artists!) He uses Scripture throughout, showing us as image bearers of Creator God and how it's not wrong to pursue these things. 

Matt challenges you at every turn, even if it's simply to challenge your thoughts and encouraging you to investigate Scripture on what it says about these things. I greatly appreciate that! He pushes you to take your art forward, if that is what God is calling you to do, but also rejoices in those to whom God has given creative ability that are used to bless without pursuing a career. It is a beautiful combination and exactly the way God intended the church to think about art and encouraging people in the talents that they have. 

I will give this caveat: If you were not raised in church or not from a background where the supernatural is talked about, you may struggle with a lot of what Matt says. He absolutely talks about the Holy Spirit working through us and seeking God in how to pursue our creative endeavors, and even as one who fully agrees with this it challenged me. 

Because of the way he phrases a few things throughout the book I struggled also, but because I've heard him speak and heard his heart, I am fairly confident I understand what he means though I don't agree with the way it's said. It would not keep me from reading it again or recommending it to others, especially Christians who want to pursue business in the creative arts. 

We can thrive as Christian artists if that is where God has led us!

4 Stars for this encouraging and challenging read!

Reading Challenges:

2022 Reading Challenge with Tim Challies: A book by someone you think you could be friends with in Committed Reader section

2022 Intentional by Grace Reading Challenge: About Creativity in Level 3 

Abundant Simplicity

This book has been sitting on my shelf for sometime now. Jim gave it to me several years ago and I'm not even sure where I heard about it to begin with, but decided it was time to read it as I really want to read all the books on my shelf as soon as possible. 

I read this book in January as we waited and planned for our most recent blessing. It was a good time to read it as we had been going through things and figuring out what we needed and what we didn't and purging those things that were not needed or not special to us. We still have a ways to go in that regard as needs are constantly changing, but this book did give encouragement in living simply and helping me discern some of those things. 

On the whole I enjoyed and appreciated the book. As I said it was encouraging over all. It did point to God and Him being our abundance and not looking to things of the world to fill us up. She shared several examples of ways people have done this which were exciting and definitely extreme for our culture. 

But they also spoke to your "typical" American family. There were things about massively downsizing, and yes I love the idea of tiny houses, but for our family this is not and likely never will be a reality. She did say that living abundantly simple will look different for different people, and that with God you needed to figure this out. However, as is often the case, being in a different type family it felt like what she was talking about was unattainable because of our family size. (I am aware this is not true, and merely my perception.) 

I would recommend this book as a great place to begin evaluating what's in your life and what God wants to be in your life. There are many things I still need to evaluate, and I will likely revisit this book again as we go through the ever changing definition of simplicity in our home.

4 stars for this read

Reading Challenges:

2022 Reading Challenge with Tim Challies: A book with a two-word title in the Committed Reader list

My Reading Life Challenge: A Book I've Been Meaning to Read

2022 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge: By an author you've never read before in Level 2

The Flirtation Experiment

This book was recommended as part of the 2022 Anchored Women Book Club for their February read. 

I was kind of excited about this book when I first got it and even the introduction had me hopeful. But this is one was back and forth for me. I really appreciate the honesty of the two women who wrote this book. 

They shared appropriately their own struggles in their marriages and gave realistic perspective. Lisa Jacobson is a mother of eight, which also helped because I knew she wasn't going to make outlandish suggestions for mothers with many littles in the quest to flirt more with your husband. 

My struggle was the same as it usually is when reading books that tell you how to spark your relationship with your husband, no real definition of what things meant in their mind. Lisa and Phylicia gave great suggestions in their chapters and were extremely practical and down to earth. They were very much, in a kind way, telling women to get over themselves and take some chances to meet your husband on his playing field. That is clearly something that is going to be harder for some than others, but their approach was straight forward and pointed people to God as their help when this is difficult. They were also very clear that if any abuse was going on to seek help right away! 

But many of the chapters felt very much the same even though they were given different titles of ways to flirt with your husband. The suggestions were different and the idea might have been written by one in one aspect and by the other in another, but the idea, if I'm looking for a definition, was in essence the same. 

If you're not a huge romantic, you may struggle with this book like I did, or you may love the ideas to make you more "romantic" in thought, at least the way we seem to describe it in America. If you are a romantic you will probably like it a lot. 

The writing is clear and well formed, so full marks on that front. But again, a bit redundant in ideology. This is a book that would work really well if you know where your weaknesses are for a 30 day challenge. Or if you are in a rough place finding the one you need to work on the most and spending 30 days on one. I do appreciate that you can read each chapter as a stand alone and get what you need from it. The chapters do not build on themselves. Because of this, there is a LOT you can do with this book, which makes it a rare commodity, especially in the Christian Marriage world. 

They are also very much about looking to God to be able to do this. Because of that this book gets a high view in my opinion, even though I'm not keen on the way some things were presented personally. 

I would give this book 4 stars and recommend it, but I would likely ask what someone was looking for before recommending it outright. 

Reading Challenges:

2022 Anchored Women Book Club: February Read

2022 Reading Challenge with Tim Challies: A book about marriage in Obsessed Reader list

2022 Christian Reading Challenge with Jami Balmet: Marriage

2022 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge: A book for the season your in from Level 2

Family Worship by Donald Whitney

I was able to knock this book out in 2 short reading sessions and it was such an encouragement! We had the privilege to study under Donald Whitney at Southern Seminary, so I was not at all surprised by this book, but it was a blessing to read for us right now.

God has really been teaching us about family worship and building a family ministry business to encourage and help other families really seeking to teach their children the Bible and growing in family discipleship. This book solidified everything we have been working on and showed us we are headed in the right direction! 

If you need a good brief overview of having family worship and the simplicity of it, this book is a great resource! I highly recommend this book!

5 stars

Reading Challenges:

2022 Reading Challenge with Tim Challies: A book about Christian Living in the Avid Reader List

2022 Christian Reading Challenge with Jami Balmet: Parenting/Family Life book

2022 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge: For the season you're in Level 1

Ragged

This book was recommended as part of the 2022 Anchored Women Book Club, and I am very thankful that it was on the list. As a recovering legalist and perfectionist, I can easily get worn out trying to do it all. Gretchen Ronnevik gives a very grace filled approach to practicing the spiritual disciplines, especially for mamas who's lives are full doing what God has called them to do day in and day out. 

The first six chapters are a call to remember who God is and His ways. While there was a lot of excellent information and being pointed to Truth, I sometimes struggled in these sections to truly understand what she was getting at until the end of the chapter. I'm not sure if it is so much her writing style as it was my tired mama brain, but I didn't enjoy this part as much as I did the rest of the book where the disciplines were discussed. There were excellent points made from quotes she shared and my notes show that many things struck a chord, so in that I would recommend it and I will be reading this book again even with struggling with the first part this last time around.

The rest of the book discusses the spiritual disciplines: rest, Bible reading, prayer, meditation, fasting, confession, generosity, lament and discipleship. I know that most of these are on pretty much any list you will find on spiritual disciplines, but there are a couple that struck a chord as I don't remember them previously on lists.

Lament in particular caught me off guard, but it really hit home, especially with all that is going on in the world. In our society we're so often told to just keep going. Do feel, keep working and you'll get better. But that's not really the case is it? Especially not for Christians. We know the world is broken and not the way it ought to be. When things happen, we need to take time to grieve. And not only that when it's not our time to grieve we are to help others grieve. Gretchen shares how someone did this for her and it was amazing. I had tears in my eyes as she recounted what another family did for her during an intense time of grief and I was blown away. I want to be that for others and I want others to be willing to do that for me if I was in a place of mourning. It was deeply challenging and convicting. That chapter alone made the book a must read for me. 

The other chapters also challenged me and gave me some freedom as she talked about different seasons and how these might look different in different seasons. Welcoming our 11th blessings has changed a lot of dynamics this time because of the personalities of the others and the ages and stages they are in. It reminded me that it's OK if I'm unable to have four hours of uninterrupted prayer and Bible reading every day like I want. It's OK for my generosity to look different than those who are single, empty nesters or in another phase. 

Freedom in Christ sums up the book and I pray that if you read this book, it will help you find the freedom in Christ you need to be able to live well in the season He has you in right now!

4.5 stars for this book on spiritual disciplines.

Reading Challenges:

2022 Anchored Women Book Club January Book

2022 Reading Challenge with Tim Challies: A book about spiritual disciplines in the Obsessed Reader list

2022 Christian Reading Challenge with Jami Balmet: Spiritual Disciplines

2022 Intentional by Grace Reading Challenge: About Christian Living in level 1

18 Years of Marriage

It's been 18 years since we said, "I do"! We have now known each other half of our lives and it's strange to realize that that is even possible. 

This year has been different. So many things are the same but I don't know another word to describe it. 

Maybe it's because we found out our 11th blessing was formed and growing just after our anniversary last year, and this year has been mostly consumed by that, even though that's not really new for us. 

Maybe it's because God has shown us a bigger and different vision for ministry than we expected and we're now working on building that together. 

Maybe it's because we have a teenager now and we've moved into the next phase of parenting along with all of the other stages. Having such a wide range of parenting has many unique challenges. 

Maybe it's because things have become more normal, and yet things are not at all what they were before the pandemic in the whole of life. 

Maybe it's some of all of it and even other things. It's hard to say. 

All that we know for sure is that God has been with us, guiding us, challenging us, protecting us, growing us, and showing us what it means to trust Him and His leading, even when we don't know or understand what He's doing. 

And we're doing life together. We're learning what it means to do life together, to do life as a family, to teach, train, disciple and evangelize our children well and to be good disciples ourselves. 

Perhaps more than anything this year we've learned how inadequate we truly are to do this amazing task that God has given to us, and yet by HIS grace, we have everything we need to do what He has called us to.

Here's to next year and the many years to come (if Jesus doesn't come back!)!!

(We've only taken 3 pictures together in the last year, this one is from Thanksgiving, the last time we took one of just us. If that doesn't say different, I don't know what does in our world!) 

Brisingr

The third installment of The Inheritance Cycle was intriguing and well written just as the first two books in the series were. The amount of imagination and creativity to create the world of Alagaesia and the story spelled out in this book are completely incredible. 

We follow Eragon as he and his cousin, Roran, go to rescue Katrina and through their adventure back to the Varden as the Varden seek to take down Galbatorix and end his tyrannical rule of Alagaesia. 

After watching Eragon's transformation to a Rider in Eldest, this book shows us the practical side of learning as he must take what he has learned from others and figure out how it applies to what he must do. We see the wrestling with the unknown, the battle of revenge vs mercy, and all that lay between as anyone seeks what is best to do in any given circumstance. 

The story is spell binding and captivating. The writing is exceptional. 

My biggest struggle with this book is some of the gore described in the midst of these battles. Because of what Paolini is attempting to accomplish, I can understand why it is there. However, I did feel that at times it was extreme and teetering on unnecessary. 

If you enjoy fantasy, I absolutely recommend this series. 

I do only give it 4 stars, however, due to the violence and some things that I felt could have been left out or handled more delicately.

Reading Challenges:

Tim Challies 2022 Christian Reading Challenge: A book recommended by a family member (Jim) in the Avid Reader section

My Reading Life Challenge: A book chosen by Jim

2022 Intentional by Grace Challenge: Book with One-word title in Level 3

2022 Christian Reading Challenge: Fiction